Ian saw this in the the canteen of a place he worked in Wiltshire, England. I like the mystery of this one: how can you stop papers? Why is it a big deal if they are removed? Maybe you can't and it isn't, hence the quotation marks. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, paper security is minor.
If you only kind of remove them, we'll only kind of take them away. Deal?
ReplyDeleteWithout the unnecessary quotation marks, it makes sense to me as spoken British English. ‘Papers’ refers to newspapers—what the sign is saying is, ‘Please don’t take the newspapers out of the cafeteria: if you do, we’ll stop our newspaper subscription.’
ReplyDeleteNEWSpapers. that makes a little more sense.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a sarcastic way of saying that the papers are free. Forever.
ReplyDeleteMe thinks there's an element of subterfuge and James Bond about this one. After all we're in the Ministry of Defence and could be talking about all manner of 'papers'. However I'm inclined to feel it may be a reference to loo roll.
ReplyDeletesuch a dry wit. we heart bethany.
ReplyDelete